Benjamin Netanyahu: Unable to change the opinion of the Zionist public.
The release of “Aidan Alexander”, a dual American-Zionist prisoner from Gaza, as well as the serious attempt to assassinate Mohammed Sinwar, (which is still unclear whether it was successful), failed to significantly change the state of public opinion in the occupied territories in favor of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ruling coalition in the polls.
A new poll by the moderate newspaper “Ma’ariv”, which is considered one of the most reliable polls in the occupied territories and is published weekly, indicates that even without the entry of “Naftali Bennett”, the parties opposing Benjamin Netanyahu could overcome the barrier of Bibi and his coalition and form a coalition if early elections were held.
According to this poll, and in a scenario without the presence of Naftali Bennett’s party, Likud would come in first with 23 seats, and Yisrael Beiteinu, led by Avigdor Lieberman, would come in second with 18 seats. The government bloc led by Benny Gantz is in third place with 16 seats, followed by the leftist Democratic Party led by Yair Golan with 16 seats. Yesh Atid, led by Yair Lapid, will be content with 12 seats, and the far-right Jewish Power party, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, will win 9 seats.
The two religious parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, won 9 and 7 seats, respectively. The two Arab faction parties also ended up with 5 seats each and 10 seats in total. The far-right Religious Zionism party led by Smotrich fell below the electoral threshold with 2.4 percent of the vote, and the Arab Balad party also fell short with 1.8 percent of the vote and was barred from the Knesset.
Therefore, in this scenario, the four parties of Israel Our Home, the Government Bloc, the Democrats, and Yesh Atid, by winning 62 seats, will succeed in forming a relatively stable cabinet without the need for Bennett and the Arab Ra’em party led by Mansour Abbas, facing a right-wing and religious opposition with only 48 seats, and as mentioned, 10 seats will also go to Arab parties.